Iain Duncan Smith 'will wash the feet of the poor'

Iain Duncan Smith will wash the feet of the poor as an act of contrition and repentance for the bedroom tax, according to Catholic commentators.

The Work and Pensions Secretary, who is a Catholic, is believed to have suffered a crisis of conscience over the tax when it was made clear to him that if Pope Francis lived in Britain, he would have fallen foul of the tax.

Mr Duncan Smith is believed to be also contemplating self-flagellation to make amends for the 34 millions of pounds lost by the DWP's dodgy computer system.

According to the Catholic journal, The Tablet, Mr Duncan Smith once believed he might be a candidate for sainthood, but now fears he might instead be fast-tracked to Hell.

'Iain sometimes feels the flames of Hell curling around his feet as a punishment for his creation of Universal Credit,' said one theologian. 'When he wrote his novel The Devil's Tune, he couldn't have known how prescient he was being.'

Mr Duncan Smith is planning to arrive at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester this weekend wearing a hair shirt.

He has said he will publicly wash the feet of any JSA claimant who can prove he has been genuinely looking for work.